Lessons Learned
February 21st, 2008
Just re-read a poignant blog by my buddy, Evan.
I did watch with disbelief and profound disappointment in ’03 as the cocky, devil-may-care Marlins made the Cubs look like fools. But I can’t imagine having closely followed that extremely talented ‘03 team and then watching such a historic implosion (especially not from the bleachers…). As a new, but quite diehard Cubs fan, I tip my hat to those of you who struggled so mightily in years past. And frankly, I understand why your faith was so bitterly shaken.
But okay already, I got my dose when last year’s Cubs saw the same assuredness in the 12-year-olds playing for the D-backs and just decided to pre-empt the upset by laying down for a sweep. Lesson learned.
So now we can just win, okay guys?
So Long, Shikami
February 20th, 2008
I keep telling myself that this is not a food blog, but I just can’t help myself.
Last night we dined at Kevin. The restaurant holds special meaning for me & K as the site of a memorable meal with our parents, celebrating our engagement back in ’04. Alas, the restaurant is closing its doors next week, so we went to pay our respects. As anticipated, it was pretty empty, but the food was damn good. We even got to meet the chef/owner and thank him for the ridiculous broth on the lobster dumplings at his newer restaurant, Shikago (which I gushed about previously).
Kevin Shikami is a diminutive and quiet man, with small circle-rim glasses. He doesn’t make the rounds in the dining room the way some more boisterous chefs do, so I asked if he could come by our table (I never do this, BTW).
His hand, when you shook it, was big and heavy. And rough as dried and cracked leather.
Appreciation Gap
February 19th, 2008
As I was saying, Stanklin & I have been discussing the need for a new term to describe music that you have to learn to love. Stanklin even took it one step further, wondering what to call those pop confections that you can’t get enough of for about two weeks, and then never want to hear again.
His best effort was “appreciation gap.” I thought this was actually pretty good in describing the temporal phenomenon. But it’s a bit limiting to use the same term for the flame-out of bubblegum as for the slow build of a masterwork.
We noticed that Pitchfork uses “grower” for the latter. Neither of us liked that. Too… jam-band. The terms don’t have to sound as derivative of an econ textbook as ours, but certainly someone else has already coined something fitting.
Anyone?